I think that Raymond Coffey, embarrassed by his unprofessional ”cutesy” piece on HB 828 (Levin, Illinois National Guard), compounded his rhetorical sins in his response to Studs Terkel`s complaint. Our nation`s sponsorship of proxy rape, pillage and murder in Nicaragua is too serious a matter for Coffey`s irrelevant personal barbs.
Coffey`s reference to Terkel`s ”political history” and to him as a
”raffishly fashionable icon on the left-of-center political scene” is as cheap as his reference to ”dippy Lakefront liberals.” Coffey wallows in ad hominems and pettifoggery.
Coffey was correct, I think, in asserting that the case for Levin`s bill was overstated. But he went far beyond the point of honest debate. National Guardsmen in Central America are not there for ”training.” Coffey knows that. They are there as a part of the ”low intensity conflict” unleashed against Nicaragua. Nicaragua must be punished, it seems, because the Sandinistas have the effrontery to insist on self-determination. As Coffey must also know, Nicaraguans had been living under U.S.-financed domination for 70 years until dictator Somoza was kicked out in 1979. What does Coffey say to that issue?
